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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30077766">Together</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaSaltInDaPeppermill/pseuds/DaSaltInDaPeppermill'>DaSaltInDaPeppermill</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Death, F/F, Hospitals, Illnesses, Muggle Life, Tragic Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:42:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,602</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30077766</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaSaltInDaPeppermill/pseuds/DaSaltInDaPeppermill</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As Lavender falls ill from the long-term effect of a curse her wife Hermione is with her, taking her to all the places she'll never be able to see.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lavender Brown/Hermione Granger</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Together</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h3> Together </h3>
<p>"Will you tell me a goodnight story? Paint me a picture of all the places we’ll go to together some day, in your muggle life. Please." Her eyes locked into mine and I could see all the pain she was drowning in, but also that tiny spark of hope that, impossibly enough, still hadn’t been crushed. I wish I could be more like her, but I’d lie if I didn’t say I’d given up long ago. Every time I heard her voice, so cracked and broken, or saw her thin body, seeming nearly see-through, like she could flicker out of existence at every moment, a piece of me died. The war had taken her from me nearly completely, and I didn’t think I’d be getting her back. "Of course" I whispered, my voice hoarse from crying. "When you get out of here I’ll take you flying with me...</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>We were high up in the air, looking out of the small aircraft’s windows as the ground drifted further and further away. The houses resembled the toys scattered around my young cousins room, and we could see so far in every direction I even thought I could see the tiniest bit of the ocean that had seemed so unreachable from the ground. I could feel Lavender’s head sink onto my shoulder as we gazed at the clouds together, and I slid my arm around her hip slowly. For a while we just stood there together in silence, overwhelmed by the magic of the moment, until our pilot called out to us that we should get ready. We reached maximum height no five minutes later, but by that time we had already managed to throw on the suits and equipment. "Are you ready?" The pilot asked, and we both answered yes, though I could hear the nervousness in Lavender’s voice. I stepped towards her, squeezing her hand. "Don’t worry, I’m here. We’re doing this together." I quickly gave her a kiss, before pulling on our helmets and strapping us together for the tandem jump. Giving the pilot my okay the door opened and we were blasted with cold air. I could feel Lavender trembling next to me, so I squeezed her arm again before giving her the thumbs up.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
Gravity hit us strong as soon as we jumped out of the plane and I could feel the familiar rush of hurling towards the ground 3000 meters below. For a short time I was able to forget everything around me, all I could feel was Lavender with me, and the beautiful freedom of falling. Then, after my subconscious 30second timer went off, there was a small lurch as the parachute opened and we started slowly drifting towards the ground. I could feel Lavender calm down and the tight grip she’d had on my suit relaxed as she spread her arms slowly. She turned her head towards me, an expression of pure joy on her face. “We’re flying." She screamed, her voice ripped away almost immediately by the wind still blowing strongly around us. Unable to stop myself, my lips found hers, arms holding onto her tightly high above the busily scurrying people beneath us. It was probably the most beautiful feeling I’d ever had. I’d obviously jumped often before, it was my way of getting away from, well, everything, but to finally be able to share this with her... it was beautiful. Her face was flushed with excitement and I swore I’d never seen her just this happy before. She looked like an angel come to rescue me, and was still positively glowing when we touched down onto the ground again.</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>...it’ll be incredible." I ended, before realizing she had fallen asleep in my arms. Her face was peaceful, the most peaceful I’d seen in a long time, for once not plagued by worry or pain. "Goodnight princess. Well get through this, together." I whispered, close to her ear. I kissed her forehead lightly, not wanting to wake her up, and quietly made my way over to a chair opposite her bed where I watched her until my eyes finally fell shut as well.<br/> 
<br/> <br/>
No more than 5 hours later I was awoken by the scurrying of healers and nurses. I jumped up quickly, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and nearly panicking. "What happened?!" I asked one of the nurses. "Oh sweetie," she answered: "are you her wife?" I nodded quickly, asking again: "what’s going on? Is something wrong with Lavender?" "Listen, don’t you worry about her too much, she’s going to be fine." "No! I want to know what’s going on!" Just then one of the healers stepped in: "Miss, we‘ll need you to calm down and leave, the patient is in critical condition and we need full concentration."<br/>
<br/> <br/>
As if in a daze I let myself be escorted out of the room by the nurse, where I just kind of stood for a few minutes, frozen. Soon, I started pacing, watching the flow of people coming and going. All of them seemed to be in a hurry, and their general air of nervousness only made my panic worse.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
After what felt like hours of endless waiting a young nurse finally walked up to me: "Hermione Granger?" He asked. I was just able to nod a bit, not really trusting my voice at the moment. "We’ll need to talk to you, but would you like to see your... wife... first?" I noticed his hesitation, but was too nervous to say anything even then, only feeling worse when I thought about how Lavender would have most certainly called him out on it there. When the door to her room opened I could see one of the healers standing over her bed, looking at a little device I couldn’t place and making notes. When we entered she looked up. "Hello Hermione..., or misses Granger?" "Hermione." "Okay then, hello Hermione. I’m Healer Willson, and I’ll be looking over Lavender here from now on." At that she held out her hand, which I lightly shook, stammering out a hello of my own. "How... how is she?" The healer gestured for me to sit, while the nurse slowly backed out of the room, closing the door behind himself, but I kept standing. "Please, just tell me." "Well, your wife is in critical condition at the moment. We managed to keep her alive in a magically induced coma for now, it’s uncertain how long she’ll have to stay in this state, but if we manage to get her stable my guess would be about 2 weeks at least." "Two weeks?!" I asked, but the healer only nodded, before saying: "I’m sorry, I’ll leave you alone with her for a bit." With that, she left the room.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
Slowly I sat down on the bed next to Lavender’s sleeping form, and a second later the tears started flowing. A coma. My princess was in a coma. And the healer hadn’t said it, but I knew the chances of her waking up were slim. I may not have studied healing, but I wasn’t stupid, and I could read faces. Even the healer had nearly given up hope. What now?<br/>
<br/> <br/>
Days and nights blurred together as I stayed by my wife’s side, sleeping in the chair, pacing the room or sitting next to her. When I wasn’t crying or talking to the healers I would tell her stories. One every night. I wasn’t sure if she could hear me, but it didn’t matter, and I liked imagining her traveling to all the places I described with me. Maybe she couldn’t be talking with me, but I thought of our minds still staying together, experiencing all the things I described, going on adventures.<br/>
"When you get out of here, I’ll finally go see the ocean with you. We’ll leave and travel the world, I promise...</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>I could smell the salt in the air already, as we made our way to the beach, hand in hand. As soon as we reached the dunes I slipped my sandals off, and she did the same. Just as I had gathered them up she gripped my hand again and pulled me towards the water, running and laughing. We found a spot for our towels and she threw herself into the sand immediately, spreading her arms and legs out and making a sand angel.<br/> 
<br/> <br/>
She was still laughing and when she noticed me watching her she pulled me down too. I feel down next to her and she hit me playfully. "Hey, you destroyed my angel!" She giggled. "Your fault!" I protested. "You were the one who pulled me down, after all." "Not true!" "Yeah it is!" I leaned over and started tickling her, making her jump up shrieking, and run towards the water. I followed quickly, trying to catch her, but the cold water hit me like a shock.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
"Eek, it’s like ice!" I screamed, looking at Lavender, who was already fully submerged, in astonishment. She slowly swam towards me, and I could just about cover my face before she splashed me with the icy cold water. When I attempted to get her back by summoning a small wave, still not really in the water, she just dove beneath the surface and I watched her come up a few meters away. "You’re so childish, you know that?" I screamed, as I finally dipped down into the water and swam towards her. "That’s why you love me." She grinned as I arrived by her side, before pulling me in for a kiss. "You’re beautiful" I whispered, as I brushed a strand of wet hair from her face. And she was. As she stood there, red faced, shivering just a little bit, her wet hair clinging to her head, she was the most beautiful human being I had ever seen.<br/>
A few minutes later we were both back on the beach, dried off, warming up in the sun. With the warmth spreading through my body, my hand in Lavender‘s and the calming sound of waves crashing onto the shore in the background I soon drifted into a light sleep.</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>...You’ll wake me up then, because you want to go swimming again. I protest a bit but in the end I’ll give in to your charm." I smiled softly, but soon I became serious again. I rested one hand lightly on her warm cheek and studied her face. Her eyelids flickered from time to time, and when I was quiet I could hear her breathing. There was nothing to suggest she wasn’t just asleep. Nothing but all the beeping machines and whirring spells around us, and the different tubes of liquid connected to her. I‘d nearly managed to completely ignore them by now, but now and then I’d get startled by a beeping that sent me into a panic. Must’ve been all the sleep I was missing, but I didn’t really care. "I love you." I said, and for a moment I could have sworn I saw the corners of her mouth twitch up a bit. Oh I’d give up everything for her to wake up again. I’d take her place if that’s what it took. Only I couldn’t.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
Days turned into weeks, and after some time real life demanded my attention again. My boss had called to tell me he couldn’t give me any more time off, and that I needed to get back to work. My friends were getting worried that I wasn’t responding to their messages and I’d missed way to many of my night classes at Uni. I had to go out. How I wished I had decided to stay in the wizarding world now.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
So, one day I finally stepped outside again. Of course, I’d walked around sometimes, but I’d avoided people and kept to myself. No way to do that now. The first day back at my job went terrible, I kept thinking about how I’d met her right here, in the summer holidays. I remembered the scene in vivid detail, how she’d walked in, this beautiful woman, her long and curly blonde hair catching my attention immediately.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
I’d watched her carefully as she looked around the shelves, picking up a book here and there, but always putting them down again. The shop had been empty, so I’d gathered the courage to walk up to her and ask if I could help. When she’d turned around her smile had caught me completely off guard. Her eyes were a deep green and shone like the sun when she smiled, and I’d never wanted to take my gaze of her again. Her genuine joy and friendliness had made me feel warm from the beginning, and for a moment I’d been so dazzled that I’d missed her answer to my question. When I’d asked again, totally embarrassed, she’d just laughed and repeated herself. That question had caught me even more of guard then her smile had. "Do you have any lesbian fiction?" I’d registered her watching my reaction, as if prepared for shock, or a homophobic comment, but instead I’d just smiled at her. "Actually, the owner doesn’t know, but I have a box of lesbian romance and sci-fi novels in the basement, I’ve just been waiting for someone to ask. Would you like me to get them for you?" She’d laughed, and it had sounded beautiful, like it came directly from her heart. I remember she’d thanked me and told me she was thrilled, so I’d quickly hurried down to get them, hiding my blush. When I’d come back up we’d chatted a bit more about lesbian books, I’d recommend some, she had too, and we’d parted, laughing.<br/>
After that, she’d come more and more often, and one day we’d finally exchanged numbers. She’d asked me on a coffee date and one thing had led to another.<br/>
 <br/> <br/>
I was jerked back into the present by one of my colleagues waving his hand in front of my face. Excusing myself I quickly left to the back of the store where I promptly broke out in tears.<br/>
The rest of the week continued pretty similarly. Working half a day, university classes in the evening and then spending the nights at the hospital.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
That was until that one fateful Saturday evening. I’d been working the afternoon, the regular time at the shop had begun to calm me, helped me relax my thoughts and just drown out reality for a bit. When the call came I’d been on the front register, but luckily there hadn’t been anyone buying anything, so I’d been able to take it. Of course, there was a strict no phones policy, but when I’d explained my situation my boss had luckily been quite understanding and I’d been allowed calls from the hospital.<br/>
"Hello, am I speaking to misses Granger?"<br/>
"Yes, that’s me, why?"<br/>
"Hermione. This is Healer Willson. We need you to come to st. Mungos ASAP."<br/>
"Why, what happened? Is something wrong with Lavender?"<br/>
"You’ll be informed of everything once you arrive here."<br/>
"Thanks, bye."<br/>
"Goodb -"<br/>
I left work right away, quickly phoning my replacement before storming out of the store and rushing to the hospital. About 5 minutes later I finally arrived, out of breath and by that time in full panic mode.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
I didn’t even say hello when I opened the door to Lavender’s room, just walked in and asked about her well-being. Well, more like half screamed, half sobbed a question about her well-being, really. The healers face was calm, stern and controlled. Not a good sign. She quickly led me towards my chair and handed me a glass of water. I refused, really just wanting to know if my wife was okay. "Listen, Hermione, I’m going to need you to calm down a bit okay? Breathe deeply, it’s going to be fine." I knew it wasn’t. Gonna be fine, that is. But still I tried to calm, because I knew she wouldn’t tell me anything if I fell into a panic attack.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
After a few minutes it seemed she thought I was stable enough to hear what was going on. "Your wife’s health has dropped rapidly and some of the healing charms have lost power, we’re still trying to figure out why, but at the moment it seems there is no specific cause for her condition worsening. We’re trying everything we can to help her." Her tone sounded calming, like she was trying with all her might to convince me it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. "What does this mean for her?" "Well, we’re able to keep her alive, for now, but it’s unsure when she’ll be able to wake up... if ever." "No!" The cry was ripped from my throat as I finally broke down. Because right then I realized that when she wakes up had turned into if she wakes up, a long time ago.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
The next few days I was unable to work. Really, I was unable to do anything. I stayed by Lavender’s side as long as possible, and when the concerned nurses and healers became too annoying I hid myself away in our tiny apartment. Days went on like normal around me, but I was just standing still in the middle of it all. The few times people tried to contact me I blocked them off, ignored them, and soon everyone seemed to have caught on to the fact I wasn’t going to talk. I still visited my wife regularly, of course, I still sat beside her bed, still stroked her hair and told her stories.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
The days became full of dull routine, I went back to work, smiled my fake smile at customers and left straight for the hospital after, only going home to sleep. I hadn’t taken up classes again, couldn’t bare the weight. Somehow, I survived. Survived without her. Barely, but I did.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
The problem was that, despite all of it, I couldn’t seem to crush a little bit of hope inside me. She was just asleep. She could be saved. Of course I noticed the healers becoming more hopeless every day, but I couldn’t suppress this tiny 'what if'. What if she actually could wake up again.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
Years went on and chances of survival became slimmer and slimmer, I had to make my choice. A terrible choice. And I did, because I knew she would have wanted me to do.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
I could just imagine what she would have said if she were awake: "I know this seems terrible to you, like suddenly the sun has disappeared and all it ever does is rain, right?" I would have nodded, and she would have continued: "I’ll tell you, it’s always been raining, you’ve just had an umbrella this whole time. Well, that umbrella is broken now, ripped apart by the storm, it’s not shielding you anymore. So let that old thing go, it’s just heavy in your hand. Drop it, drop it and dance." Then she would have pulled me up and out into the rain, and she’d have swung me around, twirling and spinning to a tune only she could hear. Because that’s the kind of person she was. Always happy, always optimistic. She brightened the lives of everyone she touched with hers.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
So, sometime later I signed the paper, for her, and sat by her bed, telling her one last story. "When you get out of here you’ll be happy again. All your pain will be gone, like you were never even really sick. And soon I’ll join you, and we’ll grow old together, just like what we used to dream about.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
Remember what we had planned? We‘ll buy that little house you always wanted, with red tiles and overgrown by ivy. You’ll get a dog, and we’ll wake up every morning with birds chirping in front of our windows. We’ll work side by side in our very own little bookshop, and in the holidays I’ll take you to all the places I’ve told you about, we’ll travel the world. Finally, we will be able to live our perfect life, just you and I. Together.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
Up until that point I’d tuned out everything around me, only when I kissed her goodbye and looked up I noticed the nurse standing near us silently. "Miss," he said, softly: "she’s gone now." "Thanks." I nodded, my voice somehow hoarse. I’d known of course. Known she wouldn’t hear the end of the story, but still it came as somewhat of a shock. I forced myself to complete all the necessary procedure left, the kind and comforting words of the healers washing over me without me taking any of them in. Once everything was done I kind of hovered around the halls for a while, wanting to go home but not wanting to leave her alone here. Of course, she wasn’t really here anymore at all, but I couldn’t shake the bad feeling of leaving her body alone.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
When I finally did leave I couldn’t go home anymore. Because everything at home had been ours. Our bed. Our kitchen. Her books on the shelf next to mine. Our collection of plants. Our home. Our life.<br/>
<br/> <br/>
I couldn’t face that. Because now I realized that everything that had been ours before, all that would become just mine. And I didn’t want that. Didn’t want it to be mine, I wanted her back to share everything with. At least, and that’s one thing I knew for certain, my last promise to her hadn’t been a lie. We would be united in death as we had in life. Together.</p>
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